Coming Around
by Artz001
Summary: Feeling terrible about mutating Spike, Raph decides to follow Leo and watch the stars. Can Leo help his younger brother cope? Just a quick one-shot.


Raphael stared blankly at the wall before him. It had been another successful night of battling bad guys and beating up the krang. Metalhead was broken in the processes, but as far as they all knew Donnie would be building a better Metalhead in the not too distant future. They had even managed to free some of the captured mutants, including April's dad and even Slash.

Slash. Raph's neon gaze drifted to a dusty old terrarium in the corner of his bedroom. Ever since Spike had been mutated into Slash, the red-banded turtle had been feeling a sense of emptiness. Though he tried to follow Sensei's advice on the matter, Raph couldn't help but feel like he was caught in a rut of emotions.

And he hated it.

It wasn't until there was a knock on the door that he even realized that it was 10 in the evening.

"Raph?"

Raph glared at the leader's voice. The last thing he wanted was to hear Leo lecture him about something he could improve on from the nights events. Growling silently to himself, Raph rose from his bed and opened the door. Not noticing the calm look on Leo's face, Raph sneered at his brother.

"What do you want, Leo?"

Leo jumped at Raph's voice a bit. "I wanted to ask you something."

Green eyes scanned Leo's face. Cocking an eyebrow, Raph replied, "What?"

Leo smiled a bit. "I was wondering if you wanted to head to the roof tops with me for a bit? It's a nice night; the stars are showing."

Raph eyes went wide for the briefest of moments, taken aback from the question. He composed himself in half a second before he spoke.

"Why do you wanna do that?"

Leo shrugged. "I thought it'd be nice to get away from the video game party in the living room."

Raph looked past Leo to see Donnie, Mikey, April, and Casey all clowning around playing Mario kart. The red-banded turtle snickered when we saw April between her two admirers. All of them were yelling and screaming, bumping one another as they were racing in their virtual world. After a few moments, Casey's character suddenly crashed into Donatello's character.

"Watch it, Casey."

"It's a free race amphibian."

As Raph watched the argument get more and more heated (with poor April stuck in the middle), he sighed.

"Okay Leo. Let's blow this joint."

Leo smiled and placed a note for Sensei on the table as Raph followed him out of the sewer lair. As the brothers made their way down the long twisting tunnels of the sewer system, Raph couldn't help but remember the nights when he and Leo would fight. Major fights always lead to Raph storming out of the lair with Spike in hand. The sinking feeling began to fill Raph again as he followed Leo toward the surface. He blinked back a few tears tugging at the corner of his eyes before climbing into the streets of New York City. With grace, Raph and Leo slinked into the shadows, searching for a favorite fire escape toward the rooftops. As silent as the midnight shadows, the brothers finally climbed their way toward the top of a rather tall apartment building, keeping a sharp lookout for any signs of a disruption for their night out. With almost no effort, the turtles managed to climb to the top and place themselves on the roof of the building. Leaning on the edge, both brothers stood in silence for a while, watching the stars that danced overhead. Raph closed his eyes, listening to the sounds of the sleepy city.

"I saw that look Slash gave you."

Raph's eyes snapped open when Leo broke the silence. He whipped his head toward his brother.

"What?"

"You heard me," Leo spoke calmly turning to face him as well. "When we rescued all of the mutants from the Krang prison, I noticed you two shared a look."

There was a sinking feeling in the pit of Raph's stomach and the tears from before were coming back. Raph turned back toward the sky in hopes of hiding this from Leo.

"So?"

Leo sighed. "So, I know you are still hurting from what happened between you two."

"It's no big deal."

"And yet you're crying."

Raph snapped a hand to his face, surprised to find it damp with the fallen tears. Raph closed his eyes, forcing more salty drops out in the process. He didn't want to cry, especially in front of Leo. It wasn't until a gentle hand was placed on his shoulder that Raph glanced back at his brother in blue.

"It's okay, Raph." Leo said gently. "I know you're upset. And you have every right to be. But you need to let us be there for you. I can't help you if you don't talk about some of these things."

At his words, Raph could no longer keep his composure. He turned toward the ground, eyes jammed as tightly shut as possible. Leo felt his brother's body shake from nearly silent sobbing. Hesitantly, the older turtle wrapped his arms around Raph in a hug, hoping that this wouldn't end with him getting flattened to the ground. Needless to say, when Raph hugged tightly back, Leo was surprised. But the blue banded brother simply rubbed Raph's shell, as the hot head finally let his emotions out.

"He was my pet, Leo!" Raph cried hard. "I loved him so much! Why did he have to become that... that... monster mutant?! It messed with his brain! I was careless with the mutagen and I lost my best friend because of it!"

Leo stayed silent as Raph yelled out his feelings, sobbing harshly into Leo's shoulder as he did. It was a good five minutes before Leo felt Raph's sobbing become staggered breaths. Leo smiled gently; his brother's crying was slowing. Raph gently pushed Leo away, wiping the remaining tears with the back of his hand. He glanced up at Leo, unsure of what to say. So Leo spoke first.

"Raph, what happened to Spike was an accident," Leo said calmly. "It could've happened to anyone. I'm sorry he no longer gets along with you, and believe it or not, I miss him to," Leo began to rub Raph's shoulder. "But that look he gave you today was a good thing. It means there's still that piece left in him. Somewhere in that jumbled mind is the part that was Spike; the turtle whom you cared for for so long," Leo gave Raph's shoulder a gentle squeeze. "And that proves that Spike isn't really gone; just confused."

Raph sniffed a bit as Leo continued. "Maybe one day, he'll come to his senses and return. But until then, we are just going to have to give it time."

Raph sighed as Leo released his arm. "I guess you're right Leo."

Leo smiled. "I'm always right."

Raph cocked an eyebrow. "Not always, Leo."

"Oh yea?" Leo said with a smug look. "Name one time I wasn't right."

"We were twelve," Raph began with an equally smug look. "You told us that Sensei said we could go skip stones in the sewer when he said NOT to go out of the lair. Because of that, we had to do 100 extra flips each training session, and stay an hour later each time also."

"That's not relevant."

"How is that not relevant?"

"That was three years ago!"

"You said name a time; there isn't an age limit. That's not how that works."

"Yes there is!"

"No way, Leo!"

Leo growled playfully and pounced on Raph without warning. The two began to scuffle, a mixture of grunts growls emitting from one another. Leo couldn't help but chuckle at their play fighting and Raph wore a smirk where his crying had been before. It wasn't long before Raph was on top of Leo, trying to pin him firmly to the ground.

"You give, Leo?"

"Nope," Leo struggled to keep Raph from pinning him fully. An idea struck the older turtle. It had been ages since any of the brothers had dared to try this, but Leo felt Raph was in a playful enough mood. Without warning, Leo let go of Raph's hands and quickly started digging his fingers into Raph's sides. The effect was immediate; Raph let out a shrill shriek before falling backwards on to the ground. Not wanting to loose his leverage, Leo jumped so he was straddling Raph and tickling anywhere that he could find open. Raph was in hysterics as he flailed his arms and kicked his legs around in a laughing mess.

"HAHAHA LEO QUIT IT! HEHEHEHAHAHAHAHA! I-ILL KILL YOU! HAHAHAHAHA!" Raph half screamed half laughed.

"Ha! Bring it, little brother!" Leo said as he started tickling Raph's sides again. Leo remembered ages ago that it had been Raph's most ticklish spot. He was rewarded with more shrieks and another peal of laughter. Leo was gently grabbing at the hothead's sides, causing Raph to flail and try to curl into a ball, with no success.

"NONONONONONONOTTHERE! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" tears started streaming down Raph's face again from the laughter.

"Say, 'Leo is always right'."

"NEVER!HAHAHA!" Raph tried to push his brother off of him but Leo took the chance to tickle his arm pits. Raph fell back onto the ground, trying to block the ticklish attacks.

"Say it!"

"NO!"

"Say it," Leo said with a smirk and a chuckle.

"OKAYOKAYOKAY! LEO IS ALWAYS RIGHT! NOW STOP! HAHAHAHAHA!" Raph managed out as he tried to curl into a ball again.

"That's more like it," Leo smiled and ceased his tickle attack. Rolling off of Raph, both brothers lay side by side. Raph was still giggling a bit, trying to catch his breath. After a moment, Raph turned on his side to face Leo.

"That. Was. Not. Fair."

Leo just grinned. "Yes it was."

Raph tried to glare at his brother, but found it difficult to do so. Instead, he smiled. "Thanks Leo."

The leader smiled. "No problem, brother."

A few moments of silenced passed before Raph spoke.

"You're not gonna tell the others about tonight, right?"

Leo shook his head. "Of course not. This is just between us."

Raph sighed with relief as they went silent again It was Leo, once again, who broke the quiet.

"I had no idea you were so sensitive Raph," the leader smirked playfully. This earned one final playful glare from Raph.

"Shut it, Leo."


End file.
